Embracing your Start Somewhere.

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Oprah did it, Kendrick did it, Jay -z did it, even George Bush did it. Whether privileged or not the basics are the same, you have to start somewhere. There could be no existence of them without the choice to take the first step, no matter how big or small it appeared.How I wish the magic wand would wave and all of my dreams would come true and how I can be where Oprah is after writing out my goals, but that in itself is not practical. Its so common to look at everyone else`s progression assuming they didn’t go through the same steps as us but even they will tell you, it took me years to get here and many steps along the way.

Taken on my recent flight back from Trinidad, this was within the first few minutes of take off.

Those years began with the start somewhere, one single first step and that’s where we often find ourselves with the most fear and worry. We quickly become discouraged by the somewhere equating it to struggle rather than a step and then we forget that Oprah was here too. To progress towards the dream, remind yourself that the start doesn’t have to be a struggle it`s simply a step which enables your start somewhere begin.Here`s an example:

You forgot the laptop charger in your bedroom upstairs, but if you don`t get it your computer will die and then there`s a chance you may lose part or all of the project you were working on unless you’re using google lol. You spend time thinking about the fact that you need to go upstairs, meaning you`ll have to expend energy to step up each step, rather than actually doing it, so in your mind you’ve built a story of struggle and wasted time lamenting on it. Your laptop tells you its at 7% so now it`s even more necessary to get the charger, but you`re still going through the story of struggling to go up the stairs while your mind begins rewiring itself to equate steps with struggle instead of a means to an end as you continue telling this story. You make the decision to finally go upstairs and get your charger. But now you`re even more frantic because the computer was on 4% which means you`ll be using way more energy to run up the stairs, dash over to the outlet to unplug the chord only to get back downstairs to see your computer went to sleep, or shut down completely.

The frustration builds up because you knew in advance you just needed to go upstairs but you delayed the inevitable, wasted time thinking about it and now you have some extra work to do filling in what was lost.

Or Maybe your laptop stayed on and you got there just in time to save your work, let that be a lesson too, you were able to create a struggle when there wasn’t one in taking those steps to reach your goal or to reach what was important to pursuing your goals. The start somewhere is where its imperative to change your mind from struggle to steps.

There was some turbulance, lots of clouds in the sky and underneath us, but the light was still shining on our pathway.

You can embrace your start somewhere, or you may have already started and feel the strain of feeling like you never move forward but if you believe in your dream enough to take any action then the great news is that you’ve not only started somewhere but you are living the start somewhere. This step doesn’t need to be one day or a week, it takes the time it needs, and since time isn’t linear take all the time you need. When years pass after working hard towards your dream and stepping up many stairs someone will also look at you and ask… How did you get there and you will be able to say, well I had to start somewhere.

At some point you`ll get to cruising altitude where the steps become habits, and the start becomes the distant past of a beautiful journey.

This piece was inspired by a discussion with my cousin Ishmael who showed me that the start doesn`t have to be a struggle as much as it is steps.